United Catcher Boats

1. We advocate fishery policy positions of the association. This includes presenting the association's positions before groups such as the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the Alaska Board of Fisheries, the Alaska State Legislature and the US Congress. This entails developing policy positions supported by the association, writing position papers and comments on government proposed actions affecting the management of fisheries important to United Catcher Boat members, including the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska groundfish and crab fisheries.2. We participate in a wide variety of industry/government meetings which affect the management of the fisheries in which United Catcher Boat members participate. This includes attending six to ten lengthy meetings per year. Usually the Executive Director and the Technical Advisor and a few active Board of Directors attend these public meetings. Most meetings occur within the State of Alaska. The association typically will present written and oral testimony during the public hearing portion of these meetings.3. We participate in the development of federal and state legislation that affects the management of the fisheries in which United Catcher Boat members participate. This includes working with key legislative members and staff, reviewing draft committee bills, presenting written comments and oral public testimony to various legislative committees. One key piece of legislation is the reauthorization of the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act, (occurs every three years), before the US Congress. This activity is conducted primarily by the association's Executive Director and a few more active Board of Directors. Association positions on legislation occurs at the monthly Board of Directors meetings and at the annual membership meeting.4. We provide association members with information on various fisheries throughout the year as the fisheries are conducted. This information originates from primarily the National Marine Fisheries Service. The association obtains fishery statistics from the government and distributes this information, as well as an analysis of this information, to its members. Generally, this information includes the amount of fish taken in a fishery, where the fishery occurs, and the rates of by catch (undesirable species) of various participants. This is public information and the association assists the government in presenting such information to the fleet. The medium for conveying this information includes weekly catch reports, newsletters, faxes and individual phone calls to members. This also includes forecasting fishery closures for members of the association.5. We provide government fisheries managers with information about the association members' vessels. Federal fisheries managers need information in-season to help determine closures of fisheries. This includes catching power, effort and number of vessels per fishery. The association works closely with fisheries managers to assist in the healthy management of the fisheries. This is primarily the work of the Executive Director.6. We assist in government research of fisheries of concern to the association members. This includes review of government research proposals, apprising association members of possible grants and charter opportunities, conducting research, writing and presenting papers at government sponsored workshops and symposiums.7. We provide oversight and support in the administration of annual cooperative fishing agreements our members enter into with each other and other Bering Sea pollock catcher vessel owners. With Congressional passage of the American Fisheries Act in 1998, owners of the 112 vessels that fish for pollock in the Bering Sea can enter into nine fishing cooperatives in order to rationally harvest annual pollock allocations. We assist in the management of the coops' harvest by monitoring each coops' harvest throughout the seasons, track transfers of coop members vessel's allocations among the catcher vessels, and assist in managing the coop's plans for management of bycatch harvests of salmon.8. In 2023 we continued our work to examine the feasibility of electronic monitoring systems for compliance on pollock mid-water trawl catcher vessels delivering to shoreside processing facilities in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. The project is evaluating electronic monitoring for improved data quality and consistency, detection and quantification of groundfish discard events, costs of collection and review of fisheries data. The work was funded with a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.